Chandler Grove Trail

Humboldt Redwoods State Park

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The final little hike of the day spent along the Avenue of the Giants was another marked as a stop along the auto tour. The parking area is a short way north of the unmarked road for the High Rock River Trail. This particular trail seemed designed to highlight hillside forests and log bridges. Trails form two loops with a spur down to a creek. I started up the rightmost trail, to head around the outside of the loops counterclockwise. Hillside trees generally aren't quite so big, but there was one or two, along with other features of old growth as listed on the sign below.

Trees on a hillside with a multilayered canopy.

Some big trees turn out not quite so big above.

Not many bright colors at the moment, but there are a couple mushrooms in the duff of redwood needles and laurel leaves.

I took the spur down to the log bridge, of course. It is a rather steep little trail switchbacking down to the tiny stream below. It passes a couple extra log bridges before coming to the one the trail goes across. The first is an old one with roots embedded deeply. Not quite all of them were slowing down the water to make fish habitat. It is a little hard to think of a fish in such a tiny stream. Tiny fish.

Looking down the switchbacks to the little stream.

Dead snags are part of old growth.

Down at the little stream with the trail beside it.

A bridge with roots through it. People have mistakenly used this one as a bridge.

Another view of the little stream.

I got to the road. Even though it is a short way back, I didn't really want to walk the road back. I hadn't got all the trail and there really isn't that much trail. I followed it back along the stream and over the furthest, appropriate log bridge, then back up. There I noticed something I was going to look for a little later in the year: blooming fetid adderstongue! I had actually spotted two already starting to seed on the High Rock River Trail, which was strange and disappointing. This flower was a little worse for wear, but it was there to behold.

The California fetid adderstongue. It is not a large flower.

The California fetid adderstongue.

That was a little bit of unexpected luck. I finished the trail, then crossed the road to take a short trail out toward the river to look out on it before finishing. I even found another fetid adderstongue along the way, although that one was just a tiny pair of leaves that hadn't even got their fetid dots yet and wasn't even budding.

A little more trail.

At the river.

*photo album*




©2022 Valerie Norton
Written 12 Feb 2022